BARBADOS IS NUMBER 50!
There were two women from Barbados that I was driving and when they saw my collection of bills, one of them said, "We don't have any money from Barbados." A couple minutes later after entertaining them, I was handed this bill for my 50th country represented in my car. The windmill on the right is on the back of the bill. I think when I said I had 49 countries represented, they wanted to be #50.
TWO BRIDES TO BE
There is a first time for everything and these young women are both getting married this August. They are best friends and definitely had a good time the night before. On the way to the airport, they entertained me as much as I entertained them, maybe they entertained a little more. One of them did say, "You're teaching me more than I've ever learned in my life." One bride to be is going to Hawaii on her honeymoon and the other is going to Italy and Greece. I'm not going to say which one, but one did say about her honeymoon, "I'd rather go with her than with my husband." They are not getting married in the same place. I wished both of them forty years of happiness and I'm still waiting for the picture they took of all of us at the airport.
HER "SOUTHERN CHARM"
She is from New York and the longer the ride went, her inner New Yorker kept coming out. She met her boyfriend in South Carolina and she calls him, "Southern Charm." I laughed a lot when she told me about taking him to New York for the first time. She kept giving him instructions and directions on what to do. At LaGuardia Airport she told him, " Don't look at anyone, don't smile, follow me, keep your head down and pick up the pace. If you can't pick it up, go in front of me and I'll move you." He loves dogs and she pointed to the police dog and said, "That is the police, do not pet him. I don't have time to go to the hospital, because he bit your hand off." She is clearly in love after four years, because she told me this: "If it takes him ten years to propose, he's my man."
It was a great way to start my day with an inspiring success story. My rider who was in distribution, received a promotion in Maryland to move to New York with only a small increase in pay. After turning it down, he later accepted a very good severance package from the company. He called a friend who had a cafe on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Md. and a small brewery next to it. The friend was selling iced tea with 4% alcohol and they decided to get serious about the marketing of the product, Hoop Tea.
The head of Anheuser-Busch found Hoop Tea in a local store and loved it and called the two entrepreneurs. Hoop Tea is now an Anheuser-Busch product being run by my rider and his friend. The drink can be found in around twenty different states and it is growing well. I received a little swag from my rider and it now sits with my hats in my car. Congrats to them and a great future.
CELEBRATING HIS 5OTH BIRTHDAY
The Florida couple are celebrating his 50th birthday by doing a 50-50. No, not a raffle, but they are going to take their two kids to 50 states over 50 weeks and continue to work at the same time. They were both former Uber and Lyft drivers and she has been with the Walt Disney Company for ten years and works as a server in a restaurant in Disney's Hollywood Studios. He runs their Etsy business and with flexible schedules they have this adventure planned out. As a big Disney fan myself I was surprised when he told me that he has been to Disney World around 2,000 times in his life. What a great way to celebrate a special birthday! I enjoyed driving them in Charleston and helping them with their fun quest.
THE CREATIVE COLLEGE STUDENT
I mentioned to the three college students that I write about my favorite riders each month and their favorite comments and one of them wanted to know if she could be on the blog. She then told me a story that started, "I'm really an old man and I'm 82 years old. My name is Bob, which is short for Bobby. I worked in a Kroger for fifty years and never got a raise." For a good five minutes she added to the story and told me that it all started, "On the beach when I saw a big X." I was driving and having difficulty following the story, but she ended it by saying, "The aura of the old man will always be in this car." It was a terrific performance.
THE ALASKAN SCIENTIST
Sometimes there isn't enough time to talk to a rider. I spoke with my passenger for twenty minutes but did not get to talk about living in Alaska. She's only the second Alaskan I've driven and the other was not a permanent resident. As a scientist, she is working on environmental clean-up. She told me, "I've been a chemist and a biologist." She also owns a Ford Transit passenger van like I do. What does she put in the van? How about a 210 pound dog? Her dog weighs seven times the weight of my dog, but I didn't have time to discuss her dog. She had a great laugh and we had a good time talking, but ten more minutes would have been better.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD
She needed a new start and decided to move from Ohio to Mt. Pleasant in the Charleston, South Carolina area. She works in finance and being a number's guy, we got to talk about some numbers and we had an entertaining ride. She's thinking of maybe doing some missionary work, because she, "Wants to make a difference in the world." When I dropped her off, she handed me a folded up $100 bill. I was speechless and she said, "I want to make a difference in people's lives." I think she's off to a very good start in her new life.
No comments:
Post a Comment